I don’t know about you, but I love a great vintage find. The thrill of finding something beautiful that perfectly fits your home coupled with the complete lack of guilt that comes with getting a great deal is kind of unrivaled in the exciting department.
There is a house near me that has been abandoned for a while, but I’ve always noticed it and thought it was cute. Well, a few weeks ago, I noticed an estate sale sign out front so I obviously walked right in to see the inside and what I could find. Unfortunately, the inside was run-down and smelled terrible, and would probably need to be gutted to restore the house to a livable state. But S and I are not ones to be deterred by disgusting-ness (I don’t know if that is a trait to brag about), and we snagged a pile of framed paintings for $1 each, which you really can’t beat considering the cost of picture frames (and original art!).
One of the paintings was huge, and I actually liked it for the painting itself rather than the frame. I’m still debating whether to paint the frame, but I think it will hang above our buffet in the dining room. I love that it has a muted color palette but still brings so many great colors to the mostly gray, black, wood and metallic tones in the room. (The colors in the first picture below have been brightened by Instagram editing — oops!
I was so happy to find out that two matching frames were the perfect size for two airplane prints I had snagged a few months ago at Goodwill for G’s gallery wall. I’ve been pricing 11×14 frames everywhere since I found the prints, but the affordable options are not very exciting quality-wise. These estate sale frames are solid wood and super-thick. I forgot to take good before pictures before I broke out the spray paint, but here is one of the paintings that was inside one of the frames,
and here is the frame in the process of being painted a glossy white.
After that, I just popped the prints on top of the original paintings, and put them back in the frames. Now, they are all ready to be added to G’s gallery wall.
We also brought home this painting, which I might frame or lean on a bookshelf as-is.
And this painting, which will be used for the frame (although S likes the painting itself. Maybe for his basement workshop? Haha).
And this one, which was the larger, middle part of a triptych with the two frames that I painted:
Last but not least, I went to a small flea market the day of G’s party. It’s an annual, one-day flea market that I LOVE, and I missed it last year because I was this close to having G the day it went on, so I was determined not to miss it again this year. As it went, I only had about a half hour to run through it, so I only picked up this pretty red stadium blanket for $15. I did bypass a lot of other great stuff, but I was still pretty happy because I’ve been looking for one of these for a reasonable price for a long time (why are they all over $100 online? these itchy things were a childhood staple for me). This one is gorgeous in person because the bright red is slightly muted by the white and navy plaid.
Happy hunting!
Park and Division 